jingoistic vitriol against individuals and issues considered to be remotely ‘Islamic’ was the surface effect of a cultural constellation that runs deep in the subliminal consciousness of western Europe and North America. In order to accentuate that this ‘Islamophobic’ assemblage is dense and historically

Introduction The Japan Islamic Congress (Nihon Isuramu Kyōdan 日本イスラム教団, hereafter abbreviated as the JIC ) 1 is a religious organization which was founded in December 1974 by Futaki Hideo 二木秀雄 (1908–1992), a Japanese medical doctor and convert to Islam. It grew rapidly to claim a

, seemingly ordinary and common actions of smiling or cleaning embrace a whole spiritual dimension. So, where does religion start, and where does it end? It poses then a conceptual question: can social sciences distinguish between the “sacred” and the “mundane” when observing Islam? What can be considered as

1 Introduction Liberal Islamic human rights schemes argue that Islam conforms to modern notions of human rights. However, these efforts are susceptible to accusations of cherry-picking and straying from traditional Islamic teachings. This article examines the appropriate response to such

.’ 1 Similarly, several articles have been written with the argument that the Europe and Islam are at crossroads with a choice of either Europe becoming Islamic or the Islam becoming European. 2 In this article I will present a conceptual framework that will allow us to find our way in this